Monday, March 16, 2009

High Correlation between Swing States, Obama Travel Schedule

Barack Obama has gotten out of Washington a fair amount since taking office eight weeks ago, and there's a pretty clear pattern to where he's going: states that were highly competitive last fall or may be in 2012.

North Carolina, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, and Colorado are the six states where President Obama had his smallest margins of victory and he's visited all of them since assuming office, an indication that even in the opening weeks of his Presidency he is setting up his public appearance schedule with an eye toward 2012.

Arizona was not a swing state in 2008, but a PPP analysis in December found that Obama likely would have won the state if the GOP nominee last year had been any one other than John McCain. Along with Missouri and Montana it seems like one of the three red states from last year most likely to shift when the President runs for reelection.

A great deal of the Obama political operation's success last year could be tied back to intelligent planning ahead, and that's continued on with the way the President has been deployed across the country in these first weeks.

good for the prez. I will vote for him in 2012. because we cannot go back to the same things we were doing before. there were mishaps with all the other presidents they were just covered up. with this prez the mishaps are now transparent. there is also more focus on this prez because he made history. so he is prepared for the fight alone!